


she's a brick and i'm drowning slowly

by nosecoffee



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Gen, He could murder me and I'd say thanks, Hurt/Comfort, Jellybean too, Murder AU, Sibling Bonding, Vague-Ass Soulmate AU, i don't know guys, i love Jughead so much, it'd be a privilege
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-07 12:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10360617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: Jellybean glances down at the body, sighs a little, and steps around a puddle of blood on the floor to stand across from him. "You have a point."He nods, "I often do, just not a lot about dead bodies on your kitchen floor. So, care to elaborate?"





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gayforroxane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayforroxane/gifts).
  * Inspired by [over hill and dale, under sea and storm](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10355535) by [gayforroxane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayforroxane/pseuds/gayforroxane). 



> Title from 'Brick' by Ben Folds
> 
> For oopsiwroteathing because their newest soulmate helped me to continue writing this

The bleach and the disposable gloves are sitting right next to each other. It's awful convenient, Jellybean thinks to herself, putting them in her cart, and going to grab a roll of plastic bags.

The rest of the cart is filled with ingredients for a chilli con carne.

Jellybean knows she should get the gloves and the bleach and the garbage bags at seperate stores.

Get the gloves here, the bleach from the gas station.

She has garbage bags at home, she can do this inconspicuously.

She's too shaky to actually do it though.

She takes a chance.

Jellybean lines up everything weirdly on the checkout belt, so that the three things she's trying to get away with buying don't go together.

She's not panicking.

The kid behind the register looks hardly enthralled, pops his gum bubble and says, "Thirty dollars fifty."

Jellybean pays ("Do you want a receipt?" Fuck no) and exits the supermarket.

~

Jellybean looks up when a loud knock the door sounds.

"Come in!" She calls, mixing the chilli con carne with a wooden spoon.

Jughead comes walking in, carrying what looks to be a cheesecake in a white box.

Jellybean never really finds out, because the moment Jughead steps into the kitchen, he drops it and it falls flat on the floor. Jellybean winces, feeling disappointed.

"I can explain." She says, turning off the stove. Jughead glances at her, a vaguely disgusted look on his face.

"No, no," he replies, voice pitchy. "I think this really explains itself." Jughead folds his arms against his chest and leans on the island bench, looking at-

"Then you know that I had a reason." Jellybean continues. She knew, in theory, it'd be hard to convince him to help her, but in practice it seems even harder.

Jughead licks his lips and looks up at her, expression settled to just set determination. "Obviously, since there wouldn't be a dead body on the floor if there wasn't."

Jellybean glances down at the body, sighs a little, and steps around a puddle of blood on the floor to stand across from him. "You have a point."

He nods, "I often do, just not a lot about dead bodies on your kitchen floor. So, care to elaborate?" Jughead gestures to Reggie's corpse.

"It's a little tricky..." Jellybean trails off, rubbing her arm. Jughead carefully grips her above the elbows.

"Jelly, if you want to get away with this, you need to act fast. How long has he been on the floor like that?"

"An hour at most." Jellybean states, pulling out of his grip to look down at Reggie with regretful eyes.

"You killed him?" Jughead asks.

"Yeah." She confirms, rubbing her arm again.

"How?" Jellybean glances to the sink, the handle of the knife sticking up. She points at it.

"Breadknife to the throat." Jughead nods.

"Why?" Jellybean purses her lips, a sad feeling in her chest.

"It was an accident. You know bad things happen when he calls me 'Forsythia'."

"How could you accidentally slit his throat with a breadknife?"

"You're not gonna like it." Jellybean informs him. Jughead rolls his eyes.

"I don't like this at all, but I'm here for a reason, and I'm very set in my ways, so you need to tell me how you killed him so we can get rid of the body and have dinner." Jellybean nods at him.

"We were kissing." Jughead immediately looks taken aback. "Reggie and I have been skirting around the edges of a relationship for a while. We were kissing and he said something, but he called me Forsythia, and I stepped back, slipped and when I went to grab the edge of the counter, I grabbed the breadknife instead and he went to catch me, and I tried to put my arms around his neck to stop my head from hitting the ground and I just ended up slitting his throat open." She swallows thickly. "I've had a shower since then, as you can probably tell. His blood went everywhere."

"Why didn't you call an ambulance?" The look on his face tells her this is the one thing he can't get through his mind, never mind that she killed someone, or that she had been kissing that someone only a few seconds before their death.

"I hit the ground hard, okay? I got knocked out, and when I woke up he was dead. There was a corpse lying on top of me and I freaked out. I knew I couldn't get away with it on my own, and I knew we were having dinner tonight, so I left him where he was." Jellybean explains and swipes her nose - a family trait that Archie's always called adorable.

"There's still time to call in and report the accident." Jughead says, running a soft hand through her faded pink hair. She grimaces.

"His parents are rich as fuck, Juggy. They'd take me to court. And you know I wouldn't win. And I don't want to go to jail. We need to get rid of the body and make it look like he ran away." She stares at him and he stares back with an intensity that almost hurts. It's hard to imagine him with mismatched eyes now, even if it's only been a few months.

"What an adventure." Jughead eventually says, trying out a soft smile.

"Well, you always did say dinner was a little boring. Time to spice things up a little." Jughead nods and she tosses him the gloves.

~

"Hey." Jughead says, very softly, the hum of Reggie's car the only other sound.

"Yeah?" Jellybean responds.

"Are you alright?" She stares at the dashboard and rolls down the window, so the car is a little less silent, so she doesn't have to smell the blood.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Jughead rolls his eyes, face gaunt from the shadows the dashboard is giving off.

"Well, first of all, you did kill a man, tonight. And besides that, he was someone you cared about." Jellybean puts an arm on the door, just where the glass usually sit still. She can see her faint reflection in the mirrors.

"Yeah..." She never usually looks like this; face pale, plain, lips pink, eyes tired, bags prominent. Even her hair looks limp. There's a sadness in her mismatched eyes.

"Are you okay?" Jughead's voice is soft. She feels bile in her throat and swallows it down with the sour tears she can taste on the back of her tongue.

"Not even a little bit." Jellybean whispers and feels him take her hand.

"I can't promise we won't get caught." She shakes her head. The street lamps are gone by now.

"I don't care if we do. And if they do find out he was murdered, you had nothing to do with this. It was all me. Reggie'll get some justice, if fate decides that he deserves it." Jellybean is so sure of this. So sure it almost scares her. She wonders if Reggie liked calling her Forsythia, even if bad things always seemed to happen when he did.

"...did you love him?" The question isn't unexpected, but the sudden break in silence is a tad startling.

"...I don't know. I might have. I might. I can't tell, though." Jellybean runs her free hand through her hair. "Should I dye it back to black?"

"I think pink suites you."

"Oh."

"Why Reggie?"

"I think I might have just wanted another chance. Because I didn't really get one in the first place, and it wasn't like his soulmate was gonna show up any time soon. I figured if we could both have a second chance..." A sob rips out of her throat and she presses the back of her palm to her mouth. "Maybe our eyes would match?"

Jughead takes a shuddery breath and indicates off the road, even if there's no one else on the road.

"We're here." He says and turns the car off, but leaves the keys in the ignition.

Jellybean nods, rolling the windows back up and getting out of the car to drag the two garbage bags from the boot. They'd laden them down with bricks.

They carry the two bags to the bridge and dump them into the river, watching them sink.

If they were to be carried away in the current, they'd end up far away from Riverdale.

Jug strips off his gloves and shoves them in his jeans pocket. "Time for the long walk home." He says. Jelly strips off her own gloves and takes his hand.

"And then we sleep, yeah?" She replies, voice soft.

"Yeah." Jughead assures her and they start walking up the road, past Reggie's car and towards Riverdale.

With any luck someone would steal the car, and there wouldn't be too much fuss. It was only a matter of time until someone noticed Reggie's disappearance.

For now, they just had to make it home.

Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoyed this, please feel free to leave a comment and/or a kudos, and track me down on Tumblr. Again, thanks.


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